Printed indicia are often present on various materials and may be in the form of combinations of text and graphics that generally provide information relevant to the reader. The text and graphics often need to be small and densely printed so that all the required or desired information can be included in the space provided on the material. It is not uncommon for such information to be difficult to read without optical aids such as eyeglasses or magnifying glasses.
As they age, people generally experience increased difficulty in reading small print or reading print in dim lighting. Although optical aids such as eyeglasses and other types of magnifying glasses are available and can compensate for deficiencies in sight, they are easily misplaced, lost, broken, or are often not conveniently at hand when needed. While the difficulties of reading small print is prevalent on certain materials, such as receipts, paper documents, and labels and other packaging components, it is especially problematic for medicines, which are often packaged in small containers that require substantial amounts of information including: instructions for use, warnings, contraindications, and ingredient lists. In addition, the disproportionate use of medications by elderly consumers, and other consumers with impaired vision, exacerbates the problem.
The difficulty in reading small print on certain materials, such as labels, papers, packaging components, receipts, menus, maps, magazines, and books is well recognized and has led practitioners in the art to develop various types of devices to aid the consumer. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,113,295 and 7,448,817 describe magnifiers that are incorporated into a writing instrument and that provide a relatively small magnification area. Yet the devices described in both of these patents are impractical for magnifying large areas of small print.
Thus, there remains a very significant and growing need for a simple, inexpensive, and widely applicable magnifier system that can be readily associated with or integrated into a composition in order to provide a large surface, thin film magnifier as an optical aid for reading printed indicia.